THEY DID IT BEFORE in ‘34…EXCERPTS: Butler exposes 1933-‘34s real WALL STREET FASCIST PLOT

author: excerpts_from_book

THEY DID IT BEFORE in '34... excerpts of Jules Archer's book, The Plot to Seize the White House; Major General Smedley D. Butler exposes '33-'34's real Wall Street fascist plot

This is an extensive through succinct excerpt of THE VERY RARE Jules Archer book, The Plot to Seize the White House. Hawthorn Books, Inc. New York: New York. 1973.

It has a comparison of this Congressional Committee verified, very real 1933-34 fascist plot strategy, with a post-9-11 America...

J.P. Morgan, Jr. and one of his Partners

Major General Smedley D. Butler, only 2 time winner of Congress.Medal of Honor

President FDR (1933-1945)

SUMMARY:

The book discusses the fascist plot organized by the Dupont, Morgan, and high financial & military armaments families in the United States to usurp the FDR presidency (and the presidency in general) in 1934 and replace it with a fascist dictator that would be more beholden to them—because they would appoint it and because they would make formal changes to the U.S. government.

These formal changes were designed to minimize the elective legislative/presidential aspects of the U.S. by creating a 'back door' appointment framework through the creation of the post of a huge centralizing General Secretary of Government Affairs who would really run the government. They would be outside the electoral framework.

This plot additionally involved a 500,000 man volunteer army to seize Washington DC in 1934-5 over several days to enforce these changes.

This was revealed in Congressional Committee investigations in 1934: the McCormack-Dickstein Committee. The plot's design was to turn a veteran's 'superorganization' into a volunteer army that would be wielded publicly by a well known commander. The 'superorganization' would be privately organized, privately paid, and privately militarily supplied with arms and ammunition by Remington Arms (owned by the Duponts). The expected number was 500,000 veterans.

They would take Washington DC, installing a form of fascist dictatorship either with or without FDR depending on how well FDR 'played'. The point man selected, retired Major General Smedley Darlington Butler, was pressured by several of the actors involved with the hopes that he could be weaned from his loyalty to the U.S. Constitution and to democracy, into supporting their means of a "proxy-presidential" based dictatorship that would usurp Roosevelt—-and all elected presidents after that of course.

The veterans organization that was designed for this purpose was the American Liberty League (1933-1936). However, Butler instead of leading a fascist coup, toyed with them long enough to expose the plot to the Senate and to the U.S. media in 1934. He felt out the group until he could discover the more important backers, once he understood that something else was going on than simply an approach to him to lead a 'veterans organization' once large sums of cash were being openly discussed with him in the funding of this veterans organization, as well as their main interest of economic policy change instead of helping veterans.

He found that, among others, the millionaire 'perfumed prince,' retired military officer Mr. Clark, and multiple connections to the American Legion (Grayson-Murphy; Belgrano; others) were cited as connected with the fascist plot. (In the book you will learn that the American Legion was manipulated to be utilized illegally as a paramilitary strike breaking organization in the 1930s.) Additionally, J. P. Morgan and Company and the Rockefeller family's National City Bank were involved. The go-between between Morgan/other high financiers with Butler (and other military officers who were contacted to hopefully sway them to the fascist plot) was a New York City stock broker named Jerry MacGuire who had toured Europe extensively in the early 1930s, sending back detailed reports to Clark of the dynamics of how nascent fascist states operated and maintained power. MacGuire's recommended plan was to adopt as "most suitable to the U.S. context" the design of the French fascist organization, the Croix de Feu (Cross of Fire; Flaming Cross).

Croix de Feu was a French veteran's organization composed of commissioned and noncommissioned officers, under which each of these organized 10 others for a large volunteer paramilitary army--all to be militarily led as a private organization. It was additionally a 'vote machine' or vote block that could guarantee around 5,000,000 votes. MacGuire wanted to start a Croix de Feu in the U.S., backed by nearly unlimited amounts of funding [Butler at one point mentioned sums of $300,000,000 as being discussed in his presence] built from manipulated U.S. veterans to serve Wall Street as a private army.

As I said, this organization was called the "American Liberty League." Butler exposed it. Even though the Senate committee did take the threat seriously and did verify that a fascist coup was indeed well past the nascent planning stage, powerful financial interests made sure that the Commission's investigation stopped: it's time was allowed to run out and its appeal to renew was denied. The Commission was allowed to expire.

Next, the Department of Justice, though alrady with information to prosecute many of the involved, refused to do so. Several of the rationales for it being hushed up instead of prosecuted for high crimes of treason according to Archer and other journalists, were that since several links went back to major Democratic party members/funders this may have destroyed the Democratic party in the upcoming 1936 election—which FDR won once more for his second term. Second, Archer and others said FDR may have wanted to avoid a direct showdown with Wall Street, the Du Ponts, Morgans, and fascist-leaning military officers.

The Butler exposure of the Wall Street fascist plot is censored from sanitized textbooks that attempt to pass themselves off as U.S. history. This was a very real fascist plot in the USA, and all charges by Butler were verified independently in various ways by the Committee. The Committee even revealed that it KNEW ABOUT THE PLOT WELL BEFORE THEY CONTACTED BUTLER TO GIVE TESTIMONY ABOUT IT.

Archer's book itself, though published in the early 1970s, has become so rare through hoarding or intentional destruction it seems that copies of it on the internet are selling for $165 as a beginning price.

I have a copy of this book. I am giving you the lowdown on the fascist plot of 1933-36. I am using some of the excerpts that I feel are germane both to this 1930s fascist plot—as well as something you should reflect on in the 2004 election and beyond. The quotes I pick are mostly the purged or censored testimony of Butler and others that wes stricken from the 'official record' and were missing in the report delivered to Congress. However, the uncensored full transcripts were accidentally made available to an investigating journalist of the period, as they were bundled into many other papers he requested in dealing with the Committee's public investigation. Butler's testimony was conducted in a secret session, like many others.

It is amusing that this uncensored testimony from the secret sessions was accidentally given to one of the investigative reporters along with dozens of other papers. This was how it was inadvertently revealed. That journalist first notified Butler that Butler's testimony had been censored, then later Butler reveals more information given on radio programs done by him in relation to the plot, and later, the information appears in other books of the late 1930s by the journalists involved.

Many of the quotes I pick below come from this uncensored testimony, which is in Archer's book as well. I use the caret [^] to represent testimony that was originally censored by the Committee.

Frankly, keeping an open mind, it is still questionable whether Roosevelt was INDEED on their side as they told Butler or was expected to be on their side as they tell Butler, due to the revealed dynamics shown in this uncensored testimony whenever Roosevelt was involved. After all, the fascist plot did lead back to 1920-30s Democratic party groups. Was American to have a fascism from the left as an added part of the New Deal, or was this really a breakdown in the elite pact of people against Roosevelt? Either way, it is interesting that a nebulous group of financiers here are seen as 'above political ideology' swinging and manipulating both left and right when the strategy suits them. Do note the connections to Morgan and others. Though do take the Roosevelt quotes in as well...

I have a list of other books at the base of this excerpt I would recommend if you want to look into related parapolitical issues of the 1930s and WWII.

The McCormack-Dickstein committee agreed to listen to Butler's story in a secret executive session in New York City on November 20th, 1934. The two co-chairmen of the committee were representative John McCormack, of Massachusetts, and New York representative Samuel Dickstein, who later became a New York State Supreme Court Justice. Butler's testimony, developed in two hours of questions and answers, was recorded in full.

Simultaneously Paul Comly French broke the story in the Stern papers, the Philadelphia Record and the New York Post. Under the headline "$3,000,000 bid for Fascist Army Bared," he wrote:

Major-General Smedley D. Butler revealed today that he has been asked by a group of wealthy York brokers to lead a fascist movement to set up a dictatorship in the United States.
General butler, ranking major general of the Marine Corps up to his retirement 3 years ago, told his story today at a secret session of the Congressional Committee on Un-American activities.

McCormack opened the hearing by first noting that General Butler had been in the Marine Corps 33 years and four months and had received the Congressional Medal of honor twice, establishing his integrity and credibility as a witness. Then he invited the general to "just go ahead and tell your own way all that you know about the attempted Fascist movement in this country."

"May I preface my remarks, " Butler began, " by saying, sir, that I have one interest in all this, and that is to try to do my best to see that democracy is maintained in this country?"

"Nobody who has either read about or known about General Butler," replied McCormack promptly, "would have anything but that understanding."

. . .

Butler revealed that the speech [he was to present at a Veterans Conference to get him in the public eye and to promote the gold standard] had apparently been written for the millionaire [Clark] by the chief attorney for J.P. Morgan and Co., [John W. Davis] who had been the 1924 Democratic candidate for president.

^BUTLER: Now either from what he said then or from what MacGuire had said, I got the impression that the speech had been written by John W. Davis—one or the other of them told me that.

Clark had been amused, Butler testified, that [go-betweens] MacGuire and Doyle had claimed the authorship. Butler had pointed out that a speech urging a return to the gold standard did not seem to be relevant to the reasons he was being asked to go to the [veterans] convention. Clark had reiterated MacGuire's explanation that he wanted to see the soldiers bonus paid in gold-backed currency, not in inflated paper money.

BUTLER: "Yes," I said, "but it looks as if it were a big business speech. There's something funny about that speech, Mr. Clark." ... Clark said " ... I have got $30 million. I do not want to lose it. I'm willing to spend half of the $30 million to save the other half. If you go out and make this speech in Chicago, I'm certain it will adopt a resolution and that will be one step toward a return to gold, to have the soldiers stand up for it. We can get the soldiers to go out in great bodies to stand up for it. " This was the first beginning of the idea, you see, of having a soldiers' organization, hitting them to go out in favor of the gold standard. Clark's thought was, "I do not want to lose my money."

In a censored portion of the testimony, Butler explained why Clark thought that Roosevelt would permit himself to be pressured by such tactics.

^BUTLER: He said, "You know, the president is weak. He will come right along with this. He was born in this class. He was raised in this class, and people come back. He will run true to form. In the end he will come around. But we have got to prepare to sustain him when he does."

This blatant snobbery and that fatuous assumption about President had been too much for Butler, and he snapped a refusal to go to Chicago.

BUTLER: He said, "Why not?" I said, "I did not want to be mixed up in this thing at all. I tell you very frankly, Mr. Clark, I've got one interest and that is in the maintenance of a democracy. That is the only thing. I took an oath to sustain democracy, and that is what I'm going to do and nothing else. I'm not going to get the soldiers marching around and stirred up over the gold standard. What the hell does a soldier know about the gold standard? You're just working them, using them, just as they have been used right along, and I am going to be one of those to see that they do not use them any more except to maintain a democracy. And I will go out with them anytime to do that."

At this point, Butler testified, Clark had offered him an outright bribe to win his cooperation.

BUTLER: He said, "Why you want to be stubborn? Why do you want to be different from other people? We can take care of you. You have got a mortgage on this house," waving his hand, pointing to the house. "That can be all taken care of. It is perfectly legal, perfectly proper." "Yes," I said, "but I just do not want to do it, that's all." Finally I said, "But you know what you're trying to do? You're trying to bribe me in my own house. You're very polite about it and I could hardly call it that but it looks kind of funny to me, making that kind of proposition. You come out into the hall, I want to show you something." We went out there. I have all the flags and banners and medals of honor, and things of that kind ... . They have been given me by the Chinese and the Nicaraguans and the Haitians—by the poor people. I said to him, "You come out here. Look at that and see what you are trying to do. You are trying to buy me away from my own kind. When you have made up your mind that I will not go with you, then you come on and tell me."

After being left in the hall to inspect the trophies and think about their significance, Butler testified, Clark had joined him in the office at the back of the house. The millionaire had then asked permission to make a long-distance call.

BUTLER: He called Chicago and got hold of MacGuire at Palmer House and said MacGuire, General Butler is not coming to the convention. He has given me his reasons and they are excellent ones, and I apologize to him for my connection with that. I am not coming either. You can put this thing across. You have got $45,000. You can send those telegrams. You'll have to do it in that way. The general's not coming. I can see why. I'm going to Canada to rest. If you want me, you know where you can find me. You have enough money to go through with it." ... The convention came off and the gold standard was endorsed by the convention. I read about it with a great deal of interest. There was some talk about a flood of telegrams the came in and influence them and I was so much amused, because it all happen right in my room. Then MacGuire stopped to see me on his way back from the convention. This time he came in a hired limousine ... and told me that they had been successful in putting over their move. I said, "Yes, but you did not endorse the soldiers bonus." He said, "Well we have to get a sound currency before it is worthwhile to endorse the bonus."

Not long afterward, Butler testified, MacGuire had called again to ask him to go to Boston for a soldier's dinner that was being given in the general's name.

BUTLER: He said, "We will have a private car for you on the end of the train. You'll make a speech at this dinner and it will be worth a thousand dollars to you." I said, "I never got a thousand dollars making a speech." He said, "You will get this time. " "Who was going to pay for this dinner and the ride up in the private car?" "We will pay for out of our funds. " "I'm not going to Boston. If the soldiers of Massachusetts want to give a dinner and want me to come, I will come. But there is no thousand dollars and it. So he said, "Well, then, we will think of something else."

. . .

Although Butler did not testify to having been offered, and turning down, $750 for every speech he made to veterans' groups during his tour in which he [could have] inserted a short reference favoring the gold standard, a special tribute was paid to him on this score by a secret report he did not know of that reached the White House.

[The surveillance agent witness to the attempted bribe conversation that Butler was unaware of, wrote, in conclusion to the report:] . . .Notwithstanding the fact that I do not know General Butler, who has been occasionally subject to harsh criticism for the things he has done or failed to do, I felt it my duty to report this incident [of his rejection of the bribe to 'advertise for the gold standard' in his speeches] to you as it shows him to be a man of exceptional character. [editors comment: Was this a sting operation or a blackmail attempt of entrapment on Butler to make him more cooperative actually, something that the surveillance agent was unaware of? Who was actually already being tailed well before Butler's testimony? Was it Butler, or was it MacGuire?]

. . .

During MacGuire's trip to Europe, Butler testified, the bond salesman had sent a postcard from Nice in February 1934, and a short note later from Berlin [he was touring with his wife/family on the fascist organization research trip], both of them "having wonderful time" variety. Then after MacGuire's return, upon his urging to see Butler on a matter of utmost importance, they had met in the empty restaurant of Philadelphia's Bellevue Hotel, on August 22nd, 1934.

BUTLER: He told me all about his trip to Europe ... He said, "I went abroad to study the part that the veteran plays in the various set-ups of the governments that they have abroad. I went to Italy for 2 or 3 months and studied the position that the veterans of Italy occupy in the fascist set-up of government, and I discovered that they are the background of Mussolini. They keep them on the payrolls and various ways and keep them contented that happy; and they are his real backbone, the force on which he may depend, in case of trouble, to sustain him. Well, that set-up would not suit us at all. The soldiers of America would not like that. I then went to Germany to see what Hitler was doing, and his whole strength lies in the organizations of soldiers, too. But that would not do. I looked into the Russian [Soviet] business. I found that the use of the soldiers over there would never appeal to our men. Then I went to France, and I found just exactly the organization we are going to have. It is an organization of supersoldiers." He gave me the French name for it, but I do not recall what it is. I never could have pronounced it, anyhow. But I do know that it is a superorganization of members of all the other soldiers' organizations of France, composed of noncommissioned officers and officers. He told me that they had about 500,000, and each one was the leader of ten others, so that it gave them five million votes. And he said, "Now, that is our idea here in America—to get up an organization of that kind."

Investigators for the McCormack-Dickstein Committee were able to uncover a [MacGuire] report on this French "superorganization," the Croix de Feu, [roughly: the Cross of Fire; or, Flaming Cross], that MacGuire had written about to [one of the millionaire backers of the fascist plot] Robert S. Clark and Clark's attorney, Albert Grant Christmas, from France on March 6th, 1934.

. . .

During their meeting in Philadelphia, Butler testified, MacGuire had revealed plans of this group to develop an American Croix de Feu.

BUTLER: I said, "What you want to do it when you get it up?" "Well," he said, "we want to support President." I said, "The President does not need the support of that kind of an organization. Since when did you become a supporter of President? The last time I talked to you, you were against him." He said, "Well, he is going to go along with us now." "Is he?" "Yes." "Well, what are you going to do with these men, suppose you get these 500,000 men in America? ... " "Well," he said, "they will be the support of the president." I said, "The President has got the whole American people. What does he want them?" He said, "Don't you understand the set-up has got to be changed a bit? ... He has got to have more money. There is not any more money to give him. Eighty percent of the money now is in government bonds, and he cannot keep this racket up much longer ... he has either got to get more money out of us or has got to change the method of financing the government, and we are going to see to it that he does not change that method. He will not change it. " I said, "The idea of this great group of soldiers, then, is to sort of frightened him, is it? " "No, no, no; not to frighten him. This is to sustain him when others assault him." I said, "Well, I do not know about that. How would the President explain it?" He said: "He'll not necessarily have to explain it, because we're going to help him out. Now, did ever occur to you that the President is overworked? We might have an Assistant President, somebody to take the blame; and if things do not work out, he can drop him." He went on to say that [in their idea of fascism] it did not take any constitutional change to authorize another cabinet official, somebody to take over all the details of the office—take them off President's shoulders. He mentioned that the position would be a secretary of general affairs, a sort of supersecretary.

CHAIRMAN: A secretary of general affairs?

BUTLER: That is a term used by him—or a secretary general welfare—I cannot recall which. I came out of the interview with that name in my head. I got that idea from talking to both of them, you see [MacGuire and Clark]. They both talked about the same kind of relief that ought to be given the President, and he [MacGuire] said: "You know, the American people will swallow that. We have got the newspapers. We will start a campaign the President's health is failing. Everybody can tell that by looking at him, and the dumb American people will fall for it in a second." And I could see it. They had that sympathy racket, that they were going to have somebody take a patronage off of his shoulders and take all the worries and details of the shoulders, and then he would be like the President of France ... . Now, I cannot recall which one of those fellows told me about the rule of succession, and of the Secretary of State becoming president when the vice-president is eliminated. There is something said in one of the conversations that I had, that the President's health was bad, and he might resign, and that [vice president] Garner did not want it, anyhow, and this supersecretary would take place of the Secretary of State and in the order of succession would become president. That was the idea. [editor comment: The novel supersecretary of state created by George W. Bush is the Department of Homeland Security, a huge federal bureaucracy headed by a supersecretary over all other domestic, surveillance, and intelligence bureaucracies. Thus, at least so far, the Bush regime is establishing its supersecretary for governmental affairs, the Department of Homeland Security, similar to exposed fascist plot strategy of 1934 by going through the presidential appointee powers of the Cabinet, just like then, and to later plan to go through the line of succession (perhaps quickly by assassination or slowly by resigning: either strategies could be used depending on how well or difficult someone is with the aims of the plot) to give this novel supersecretary appointee the actual Presidential power.]

In corroborative testimony [of a journalist whom Butler asked to investigate on these issues he was learning about, to cross-verify with Butler; this happened independently of and before Butler was asked to testify to Congress] Paul Comly French described what MacGuire had told him about the conspirators' plans.

. . .

In censored testimony Butler revealed that MacGuire had implicated General Hugh Johnson, head of the N.R.A. [National Recovery Administration], as Roosevelt's own choice to become an assistant President.

^BUTLER: He said, "That is what he [Roosevelt] was building up Hugh Johnson for. Hugh Johnson talked to damn much and got him into a hole, and he's gone to fire him in the next 3 or 4 weeks. I said, "How'd you know all this?" "Oh," he said, "We are in with him [Johnson or Roosevelt?] all the time. We know what is going happen."

After having revealed plans of the plotters, Butler testified, MacGuire had bluntly asked the General to be the Man on a White Horse they were looking for.

. . .

Seeking to persuade him to change his mind, Butler testified, MacGuire had sought to impress him with the importance of the interests who were involved in the plot.

BUTLER: He said, "When I was in Paris, my headquarters were Morgan & Hodges. We had a meeting over there. I might as well tell you that our group is for you, for the head of this organization. Morgan & Hodges are against you. The Morgan interests say that you cannot be trusted, that you will be too radical, and so forth, and you are too much on the side of the little fellow; you cannot be trusted. They do not want it. Our group tells them that you're the only fellow in America began get the soldiers together. They say, 'Yes, but he would get them together and go in the wrong way.' That is what they say if you take charge of them."

According to MacGuire, Butler testified, the Morgan interests preferred other noted military figures as head of the projected veterans' army. Discussion of these choices was also eliminated from the published versions of the hearings.

^BUTLER: [MacGuire said,] "They are for Douglas MacArthur as the head of it. Douglas MacArthur's term expires in November [1934], and if he is not reappointed it is to be presumed that he will be disappointed and sore and they are for getting him to head it." I said, "I do not think that you will get the soldiers to follow him, Jerry ... . He is a bad odor, because he put on a uniform and medals to march down the street in Washington, I know the soldiers." "Well, then, we will get Hanford MacNider. They want either MacArthur or MacNider ... " I said, "MacNider won't do either. He will not get the soldiers to follow him, because he has been opposed to the bonus." "Yes, but we will have him in change [charge?]." And it is interesting to note that three weeks later after this conversation MacNider changed and turn around for the bonus. It is interesting to note that. He [MacGuire] said, "There is going to be a big quarrel over the reappointment of MacArthur ... you watch the President reappoint him. He's going to go right and if he does not reappoint him, he is going to go left." I've been watching with a great deal of interest this quarrel over his reappointment to see how it comes out. He [MacGuire] said, "You know as well as I do that MacArthur is Stotesbury's son in law in Philadelphia—[Stotesbury being] Morgan's representative in Philadelphia. You just see how it goes and if I'm not telling the truth." I noticed that MacNider turned around for the bonus, and that there is a row over the reappointment of MacArthur [just as MacGuire predicted].

Convinced by now of the seriousness of the plot, and its magnitude, Butler had endeavored to learn how far along the conspirators were in the creation of the new superorganization that would control the proposed veterans' army. MacGuire gave him some tips on recognizing its appearance.

BUTLER: Now, there is one point... which I think is the most important of all. I said, "What are you going to call this organization?" He said, "Well, I do not know." I said, "Is there anything stirring about it yet?" Yes," he says; "you watch; in two or three weeks you will see it come out in the paper. There will be big fellows in it. This is to be the background of it. These are to be the villagers in the opera. The papers will come out with it." He did not give me the name of it, but he said that it would all be made public; a society to maintain the Constitution, and so forth. They had a lot of talk this time about maintaining the Constitution [as a discourse strategy instead of simply 'helping the President']. I said, "I do not see that the Constitution is in any danger."

Butler's next observation, possibly the most significant in all his testimony, was missing from the published version of his testimony. It was the link between the conspiracy and the powerful interests Butler had good reason to believe were the "big fellows" in the background.

^BUTLER: . . .and in about two weeks the American Liberty League appeared, which was just about what he described it to be.

The American Liberty League, which had brokerage head Grayson M.-P. Murphy as its treasurer and Robert S. Clark as one of its financiers, also had John W. Davis, alleged writer of the gold-standard speech for Clark, as a member of the National Executive Committee. Its contributors included representatives of the Morgan, Du Pont, Rockefeller, Pew, and Mellon interests. Directors of the League included Al Smith and John J. Raskob. The League later formed affiliations with pro-Fascist, anti-labor, and anti-Semitic organizations.

It astonished Butler that former New York [Catholic] Governor Al Smith, who had lost the 1928 presidential race to Hoover as the Democratic candidate, could be involved in a Fascist plot backed by wealthy men. But the "happy warrior" who had grown up on New York's East Side had traded his brown derby for a black one. He was not a business associate of the powerful Du Pont family, who had cultivated him through Du Pont official John J. Raskob, former chairman of the Democratic Party.

. . .

Butler's query about Smith, and MacGuire's reply, were both deleted from the official testimony of the hearings:

^BUTLER: I said, "What is the idea of Al Smith in this?" "Well," he said, "Al Smith is getting ready to assault the Administration in his magazine. It will appear in about a month or so. He is going to take a shot at the money question. He has definitely broken with the President." I was interested to note that about a month later he did, and the New Outlook took the shot that he told me a month before they were going to take. Let me say that this fellow [MacGuire] has been able to tell me a month or six weeks ahead of time everything that happened. That made him interesting. I wanted to see if he was going to come out right. . .

In testimony that was also censored, Paul Comly French revealed that MacGuire had implicated the Du Ponts to him, indicating the role they would play in equipping the superarmy being planned by the plotters.

^FRENCH: We discussed the question of arms and equipment, and he suggested that they could be obtained from the Remington Arms Co., on credit through the Du Ponts. I do not think at that time he mentioned the connections of Du Ponts with the American Liberty League. . .but he skirted all around the idea that that was the back door; one of the Du Ponts is on the board of directors of the American Liberty League and they own a controlling interest in the Remington Arms Co. . . .He said the General would not have any trouble enlisting 500,000 men.

In a story it ran on November 21, 1934, The New York Times noted, "According to General Butler. . . he was to assemble his 500,000 men in Washington, possibly a year from now, with the expectation that such a show of force would enable it to take over the government peacefully in a few days."

. . .

Although Butler recalled having induced French to check into the case, former Philadelphia Record city editor Tom O'Neil gave the author [Archer] his recollection that Butler had approached him and told him the whole story [still leaving French in the dark to attempt to corroborate for Butler for himself, like Butler said and intended]. O'Neil recalled that he had agreed to assign French to investigate. Probably Butler first approached French, who had referenced him to the city editor.

. . .

[Butler]... concluded his testimony by urging the committee to question several persons about the plot in addition to MacGuire—notably Murphy, Doyle, and Legion Commander Frank. N. Belgrano. This request was also stricken from the official record.

Butler was aware that Chairman McCormack was himself a Legionnaire and that the revelations of the plot implicating Legion officials might be painful to him. But Butler also knew that McCormack was a determined foe of Nazi propaganda and a staunch supporter of New Deal measures. Butler counted on his indignation over the conspiracy to bring about a full-scale investigation by the Department of Justice.

. . .

After Butler had completed his testimony, Paul Comly French took the witness chair to report on his own investigation of the plot, in which a candid two-hour conversation with MacGuire at the latter's office figured prominently.

Describing these talks on the premises of Grayson M.-P. Murphy and Company, French verified every allegation about the plot to the general had attributed to MacGuire. In addition French reported the more open statements MacGuire had made to him about the nature of the conspiracy and how it would work. More frank with French, apparently, that he had dared to be with the general, MacGuire made little attempt to disguise the fascist nature of the proposed putsch which euphemistic phrases about "supporting the president."

FRENCH: [MacGuire told me] We need a fascist government in this country, he insisted, to save the nation from the Communists who want tear it down and wreck all that we have built America. The only men who have the patriotism to do it are the soldiers and Smedley Butler is the ideal leader. He could organize a million men overnight. During the conversation he told me he had been in Italy and Germany during the summer of 1934 and spring of 1934 and had made an intensive study of the background of the Nazi and Fascist movements and how the veterans had played a part in them. He said he had obtained enough information on the fascist and Nazi movements and of the part played by the veterans, to properly set up one in this country. He emphasized throughout his conversation with me that the whole thing was tremendously patriotic, that it was saving the nation from Communists, and that the men they deal with have that crackbrained idea that the Communists are going to take apart. He said the only safeguard would be the soldiers. At first he suggested that the general organize this outfit himself and asked a dollar a year dues from everybody. We discussed that, and then he came around to the point of getting outside financial funds, and he said that it would not be any trouble to raise a million dollars.

. . .

Censored in French's testimony was his revelation of the sources to which MacGuire had said he could turn for the funds to finance the veterans army.

^FRENCH: He said he could go to John W. Davis [attorney for J.P. Morgan and Co.] or Perkins of the National City Bank [a bank associated with the John D. Rockefeller; Perkins family money, if it is the same Perkins, came from the "China trade" or the opium drug trade], and any number of persons to get it. Of course, that may or may not mean anything. That is, his reference to John W. Davis and Perkins of the National City Bank.

French testified that MacGuire had sought to impress him by indicating high-level support for the conspiracy from important movers and shakers of the American Legion.

^FRENCH: He then put the letter across the desk and said that it was from Louis Johnson, a former national commander of the American legion.

^CHAIRMAN: Did he show you the letter?

^FRENCH: I did not read it. He just passed it over so I could see it, but he did not show it to me. He said that he had discussed the matter with him along the lines of what we were now discussing, and I took it to mean that he had talked of this fascist proposition with Johnson, and Johnson was in sympathy with it. During the conversation he also mentioned Henry Stevens, of Warsaw, N.C., a former national commander of the American Legion, and said that he was interested in the program. Several times he brought in the names of various former National commanders of the American Legion, to give me the impression that, whether justly or unjustly, a group in the American Legion or actively interested in this proposition.
^CHAIRMAN: In other words, he mentioned a lot of prominent names:; and whether they are interested or not, you do not accept the scene to try to convey to you that they were, to impress on you the significance of this movement?

^FRENCH: That is precisely the impression I gained from him.

As MacGuire had grown increasingly comfortable with him, French testified, the plotters had grown candid and enthusiastic about the tax system rewards that would follow seizure of the White House. French's use of the word "brilliant" in the following portion of testimony was obviously sarcastic.

FRENCH: He had a very brilliant solution of the unemployment situation. He said that Roosevelt had muffed it terrifically, but that he had the plan. He had seen it in Europe. It was a plan that Hitler had used in putting all of the unemployed in labor camps or barracks--enforced labor. That would sell overnight, and he said that when they got into power, this is what they would do; that was their ideal plan. He had another suggestion to register all persons all over the country, like they do in Europe. [editor's comment: immediately after September 11, 2001, multiple Bush Administration officials began to try to talk it up, as a foregone conclusion, that they were going to introduce a similar mandatory national identification requirement with your papers to be carried at all times; however, as of 2004, this attempt to pressure a national mandatory identification card, as in a police state would require your " papers " anytime they wanted, has received incredible opposition from citizens and Congress against such presidential supremacism of Bush.] ... He said that a crash was inevitable and was due to come when bonds reached 5%. He said the soldiers must prepare to save the nation. [editor's comment: I noted that is he implying they were planning a rigged stock market crash, once more?]

If Roosevelt went along with the dictatorship as the king had done in Italy, MacGuire had suggested, Butler could have the proposed labor camps put under his control.

^FRENCH: ... he suggested that Roosevelt would be in sympathy with the us and proposed the idea that Butler would be named as the head of the CCC [Civilian Conservation Corps] camps by the president as a means of building up the organization....

French then testified that MacGuire had told him the plotters could obtain arms and equipment from the Remington Arms Co., on credit through the Du Ponts. His testimony also implicated the American Liberty League.

^FRENCH: I do not think at that time he mentioned the connection of Du Ponts with the American Liberty League, but he skirted all around it. That is, I do not think he mentioned that the Liberty League, but he skirted all around the idea that that was the back door; 1 of the Du Ponts is on the board of directors of the American Liberty League and they own a controlling interest in the Remington Arms Co. ... He said the General would not have any trouble enlisting 500,000 men.

It was because MacGuire saw the general as the indispensable man of the putsch, French testified, that he persisted in his efforts to win Butler's adherence to the scheme.

. . .

That same afternoon the committee grilled Jerry MacGuire, who had also been summoned to testify at the executive session. MacGuire, who earned only $150 a week as a bond salesman, contradicted himself on the amount of money he had received from sponsors and what he had done it. He denied Butler's allegation that he had thrown 18 $1,000 bills on the bed at the Newark Hotel during the 29th Division convention to bribe Butler into going to the Legion convention in Chicago. But he could not explain what he had done it with at least $30,000 in letters of credit, funds advanced to him by either Clark or Clark's attorney, Albert Grant Christmas, and which MacGuire had had with him at the Legion convention in Chicago the following October, at which he had been both a delegate and a member of the "distinguished guest Committee."

The McCormack-Dickstein Committee found 5 significant facts that lent validity to Butler's testimony. Clark, who won the Legion to pass a gold standard resolution, had given MacGuire those funds. In the long distance call Clark had allegedly made to Chicago while Butler was listening, he had instructed MacGuire, "You can put this thing across alone. You've got $45,000. You can send those telegrams." McGuire could not explain how he had spent those funds. But telegrams had, indeed, flooded the convention, and Legion had passed the resolution. Corroboration of Butler's testimony about MacGuire's mission in Europe was borne out by the committee's finding they had spent large sums of money on that trip to study fascist movements Italy, Germany, and France. The committee found, too, that he and Clark had handled large sums of money for various organizations, that he had been active in organizations mentioned by Butler, and that he had acted as cashier for one organization. His accounts of some of these financial transactions and failed to satisfy the committee, and he was curtly instructed to reappear the following day for further questioning.

. . .

Reading the Times account of the secret hearings, Butler was struck by a unique arrangement of the facts and the story. Instead of beginning with a full account of his charges, there was only a brief paragraph restating the facts in the headline. This was followed by a whole string of denials, or ridicule of the charges, by prominent people implicated. Extensive space as it was given to their attempts to brand Butler a liar or a lunatic. Only at the tail of the story, buried inside the paper, did the Times wind up its account with a few brief paragraphs mentioning some of his allegations.

Many papers that picked up the story dropped the tail carrying even those cursory details of the plot. Newspaper publishers had little reason to be fond of the firebrand general who, in his speech to veterans in Atlanta almost a year earlier, had warned them not to believe the capitalist-controlled press, which, Butler charged, suppressed facts unfavorable to America's powerful corporations.

. . .

"All the principals in the case," George Seldes noted in his book Facts and Fascism, "were American Legion officials and financial backers."

Secretary of War George H. Durn, secretary of the Navy Claude A. Swanson, and a large number of Senators and Congressmen urged the McCormack-Dickstein Committee to get to the bottom of the conspiracy.

"We are going to make a searching investigation of the evidence submitted by General Butler," McCormack announced. "Our original information came from several different sources. General Butler was not the first source of our information .... We have been in possession of certain information for about five weeks [before General Butler's testimony] and have been investigating it. We will call all the men mentioned in the story, although Mr. Clark is reported to be in Europe. "

"From present indications," declared Dickstein, "Butler has the evidence. He's not going to make any serious charges unless he has something to back them up. We'll have the men here with bigger names than his." He added that Butler had substantiated most of the statements attributed to him and had denied none.

Dickstein indicated that about 16 persons mentioned it to the committee by Butler would be subpoenaed and that an open hearing might be held within a week.

. . .

Returning from Washington, Butler was besieged by reporters at his home in Newtown Square.

"My name has been used all around the country by organizations, " he told them. "They'd get some vets and say, 'see, we have Butler with us.' They were using me. The investigators who have been running this thing down said they wanted to know what I knew about it--and I'm not the only man in this thing."

Next day Dr. W. D. Brooks, of Jackson, Mich., wired the President:

Very obviously Wall Street plans to take over the U.S. government if Hoover reelected. Very obviously Butler is telling the truth. I have been looking for just this attempt at a Wall Street coup if your policies looked liked succeeding. Wall Street is the enemy of our government and Butler is giving it to you straight—don't doubt that for a minute.

The writer was unable to ascertain the identity of Dr. Brooks, but apparently his opinion carried some weight at the White House, because Louis Howe referred his wire to Attorney-General Homer S. Cummings "for acknowledgment and consideration." A demand for prosecution of the conspirators came from many VFW [Veterans of Foreign Wars] posts all over the country, which passed resolutions praising Butler for exposing the plotters.

. . .

If the [Morgan owned] press seemed over eager to emphasize denials of Butler's charges [that implicated the Morgans and others], the people of grassroots America were far readier to believe the man who had exposed the plot. Letters of encouragement poured in from all over the country.

. . .

Jerry MacGuire returned as a witness for a second day of secret grilling by the McCormack-Dickstein committee. .... He testified that he had received $30,000 from Robert Sterling Clark to be deposited in Hanover Trust Co. to the credit of "The Committee for a Sound Dollar and a Sound Currency, Inc." He and his backers had only wanted to interest Butler in that committee, MacGuire insisted, ...

Although Clark, his attorney A. G. Christmas, Walter E. Frew, and others were behind The Committee for a Sound Dollar and a Sound Currency, their names had been carefully omitted from its records. MacGuire testified that as far as he knew, Clark had never had any interest in a fascist organization. But the McCormack-Dickstein committee located letters from MacGuire written from Europe to Clark and Christmas that proved otherwise.

. . .

Dickstein told reporters that MacGuire was "hanging himself" by contradictions in his story and by forced admissions made during his testimony.

. . .

McCormack declared that all information about the testimony would be withheld because it had been given in closed executive session. But the fact that the committee regarded the testimony as important, he added, was shown by the decision to recall MacGuire for further questioning. Despite Dickstein's earlier statement that 16 people named by Butler would be subpoenaed, McCormack said that the committee had not yet decided whether to call additional witnesses.

. . .

Reading the press treatment of the scanty disclosures that had leaked out of the closed hearing, Butler was not surprised by the attempts to minimize and ridicule his exposure of the conspiracy. He had expected to be pilloried for his audacity in pinning a traitors' label on powerful American interests. He hoped, however, that the press would eventually be compelled to print the whole story of the plot as the data unfolds it to him when he testified at a public hearing along with French's corroboration.

. . .

Fresh support for Butler's Expose came from Van Zandt, who revealed to the press that he, too, had been approached by the " agents of Wall Street " to lead a fascist dictatorship in the United States under the guise of a "Veterans' Organization."

He revealed that Butler had informed him about the plotters' solicitation of the general two months earlier and had warned him that he, too, would be contacted by them at the VFW convention in Louisville, Kentucky. Van Zandt said he had asked Butler the purpose of the organization and the general had replied that it sought to return the American dollar to the gold standard, and, in MacGuire's words, "to get rid of this fellow in the White House."

In addition to Butler and himself, Van Zandt told reporters, MacArthur, Colonel Theodore Roosevelt Jr., and former Legion Commander Hanford MacNider had recently been sounded out on their interest in leading the proposed fascist veterans organization. But he also charged that MacGuire had spent months in Europe studying Fascist organizations as models for an American one.

Theodore Roosevelt Jr., decried as "ridiculous" the idea that he could be used to wrest the powers of the presidency away from his fourth cousin, Franklin D. Roosevelt. [editor's comment: That Teddy Roosevelt side of the Roosevelt family was historically associated with the conspiracy to split the United States during the Civil War. Teddy Roosevelt's uncle, James Bulloch, who was the head of the Confederate States of America's secret service, helped organize the Confederate Navy--just as his nephew Teddy Roosevelt helped to organize the early 20th-century U.S. Navy. Teddy Roosevelt and even visited his uncle after the Civil War, his uncle having to spend the rest of his traitorous life in England, to ask about naval history of the United States around the War of 1812 for his book on the subject. Teddy's uncle eventually wrote a book about his own Confederate experiences as a Southern spy, recently republished, entitled The Secret Service of the Confederate States in Europe, or, How the Confederate Cruisers Were Equipped. Author, James P. Bulloch; republished in 2001. The father of Teddy Roosevelt, Jr., mentioned above, was of course Teddy Roosevelt himself, who was involved in America's first artificial and fake war: the fake media blitz that led to the Spanish-American War, that TR personally led: TR's war was legitimated by the INTERNAL explosions on board the USS Maine in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, which was used by Teddy Roosevelt to blame Spain so he could illegally attack the Cuban Spanish government and the Philippines Spanish government—the latter which of course was on the other side of the world having nothing whatsoever to do with the USS Maine explosion in Guantanamo Bay. The Hearst papers were very much involved in selling and creating the media blitz for the war context. The first U.S. imperial Governor of the Philippines was a Skull and Bonesman.]

. . .

MacGuire showed up the third time for interrogation by the committee, this time with the bank books, canceled checks, and other financial records he was ordered to produce. . . . MacGuire now testified that on September 24 1933, on the date Butler had said he was approached by MacGuire in the Newark Hotel and offered 18 $1,000 bills, MacGuire [now lies under oath he] had been Chicago. He claimed to have registered at the Palmer House on September 21st, remaining in Chicago until October 8th, so that he could not have met Butler in Newark on the 24th.

But committee investigators found that he had indeed called upon Butler that day and had available at least $16,000, largely in thousand dollars bills. Unless MacGuire had shown them to him, Butler could not possibly have known about them, lending strong verification to the general's charge that they had been tossed on his bed as a bribe.

. . .

MacGuire reluctantly admitted receiving $75,000 from Clark for an "unexplained purpose," the McCormack-Dickstein Committee report later noted, while working on a drawing account of $432 a month. This $75,000 was in addition to the $30,000 he had also received from Walter E. Frew, of Corn Exchange Bank, for the Committee for a Sound Dollar and a Sound Currency, Inc.. "Whether there was more, and how much more," said the report, "the [McCormack-Dickstein] committee does not yet know."

MacGuire admitted spending almost $8,000 on the trip to Europe ostensibly to buy bonds, but the investigators noted the trip had resulted [instead] in a detailed reports to MacGuire's backers on various Fascist organizations abroad.

Although he still denied having tossed the $18,000 on Butler's bed in the Newark Hotel, the committee found bank records showing he had bought letters of credit 6 days later from Central Hanover Bank, paying for them with 13 $1,000 bills.

. . .

McCormack next turned to subpoenaed reports that MacGuire had sent back from Europe and cited the one that he had sent back praising the Croix de Feu as a model veterans organization. He also read out another report MacGuire had submitted to his backers on the fascist party of Holland.

MCCORMACK: and in this report you also said: "I was informed that there is a fascist party springing up in Holland and under the leadership of a man named Mussait is an engineer by profession, and who has approximately 50,000 followers at the present time, ranging in age from 18 to 25 years. It said that this man is in close touch with Berlin and is modeling his entire program on lines followed by Hitler in Germany ...." So you studied this fascist party when you were in Holland, did you?

. . .

The committee examined tellers from the Central Hanover Bank and Trust Co. and other banks on financial transactions that had taken place between MacGuire and Clark, on the account of Albert Christmas, Clark's attorney. Evidence was found that the day before MacGuire had allegedly seen Butler in Newark, he had drawn $6,000 in $1,000 bills from a "special account" in the Manufacturers Trust Company and also been given $10,000 in thousand dollar bills by Christmas in Clark's presence. The committee was convinced that MacGuire had been the "cashier" for the planned veterans organization.

The committee also found evidence that disproved MacGuire's alibi that he had been in Chicago on September 24th, as well as his contention that he had not seen Butler on that day at the Newark Hotel. And it was established beyond dispute that he had written detailed letters to Clark and Christmas reporting on the Black Shirts of Italy, the Brown Shirts of Germany, and the Croix de Feu of France.

McCormack announced a grimly that he would subpoena Clark as soon as he returned from Europe. "As the evidence stands," he declared, "it calls for an explanation that the committee has been unable to obtain from Mr. MacGuire."

On November 26th, 1934, referring to MacGuire's testimony, Representative Dickstein declared, "You can't get away from it--somebody is trying to shield somebody or something that looks rotten, and honest people don't do that."

. . .

When the committee called no further witnesses from among those named in the testimony [despite their previous statements in public that they had 16 people in mind to be subpoenaed], gossip swept Washington that the uncalled witnesses were simply too powerful to be subpoenaed.

Investigating, reporter John Spivak learned that the only one known to have been called to testify was California banker Frank N. Belgrano, commander of the American Legion. Checking into why he had not testified [despite being called to appear!], Spivak found that he had been informed he could return home without having to answer a single question. The reporter could not verify a rumor that Belgrano had met with President Roosevelt at the White House, after which he had been taken off the committee's hook.

When Spivak tried to learn more about this from the committee itself, Dickstein revealed that he didn't know why Belgrano had been sent home without being questioned, and McCormack declined to answer any questions on the subject.

. . .[T]he committee was far from being "calm" about the matter as the Times story insisted. On that same day Dickstein wrote to President Roosevelt, "The committee on CUAA has issued the enclosed short report on General Butler's charges, which we have made public, as the pressure brought to bear on the committee made this course absolutely imperative. . . .I should very much like to have a conversation with you at your convenience." The day after the Times ran its "Committee Calm" version of the preliminary McCormack-Dickstein statement, a refutation of the interpretation by Dickstein compelled the paper to print a revised article of the retraction.

. . .

The author [Archer] asked McCormack in 1971 about Time's fairness in reporting the Butler hearing. The answer was a snort of disgust. "Time has always been about as filthy a publication as ever existed, " he said emphatically. " I've said that publicly many times. The truth gets no coverage at all, just sensationalism, whatever will sell copies."

. . . Clark's attorney was not questioned, however, until the final day of the committee's life, January 3, 1935, after which no further investigatory action could be taken by the committee.

. . .

There was an interesting exchange, nevertheless, in the matter of $65,000 MacGuire testified that he had received for traveling and entertainment purposes:

MCCORMACK: So the way you want to leave it is there is $65,000 or $66,000 that Mr. MacGuire received from either you, or Mr. Clarke, which he spent in the period between June and December of 1933 for traveling and entertainment expenses?

CHRISTMAS: Yes sir.

MCCORMACK: Did he return to you sometime in August 1934 approximately $30,000 in cash?

CHRISTMAS: No.

MCCORMACK: Do you know he testified he did?

CHRISTMAS: The committee gave me some indication of such testimony at a previous session.

MCCORMACK: Assuming he has testified to that, that is not so?

CHRISTMAS: I would say he is in error. He is mistaken.

So the committee found still another reason to doubt the veracity of MacGuire, who had denied, under oath, all allegations of the fascist plot in which he was the go-between, ...

. . .

Press coverage of what was obviously a startling story of utmost importance to the security of the nation was largely one of the distortion, suppression, and omission.

"In the case of the Liberty League-Legion-Wall Street conspiracy to overthrow the United States government," George Seldes declared in his book 1000 Americans, "there was one of the most reprehensible conspiracies of silence in along (and disgraceful) history of American journalism."

In his book Facts and Fascism he wrote, "most papers suppressed the whole story or threw it down by ridiculing it. Nor did the press later publish the McCormack-Dickstein report which stated that every charge Butler made and French corroborated have been proven true."

The most sensitive revelations, as far as the press was concerned, were those touching upon connections with J.P. Morgan and Co. and the powerful interests represented by the American Liberty League. Heywood Broun, the highly esteemed columnist for The New York World telegram, once observed that the face of the New York Times was "black with the Morgan shoepolish."

. . .

The storm of controversy over his exposure of the plot led radio station WCAU of Philadelphia, Pa., to urge Butler to make broadcasts for them 2 to 4 nights a week. He agreed, and beginning on January 4th took to the airwaves with hard-hitting attacks on fascist plotters. What he had to say was impressive enough to make small headlines in the back pages of newspapers sufficiently often to generate enthusiastic support from the nation's veterans.

On January 7th The Miami, Okla., post of VFW passed a resolution: "Major-General Smedley D. Butler should be commended for his high type of patriotism and exposing the alleged plot to establish a dictatorship in the United States, and ... Franklin D. Roosevelt, President, and citizens of the United States, should express their appreciation of this exposure."

A movement began within the VFW to have each post reaffirm its loyalty to the President and the Constitution. "This, in my opinion, would serve notice upon all plotters against our government," wrote Henry S. Drezner, VFW official of the Brooklyn post, "that the veterans will not stand idly by while an attempt should be made to destroy our form of government."

. . .

Worst of all, no one involved in the plot had been prosecuted. Spivak went to the Department of Justice and pointed out that MacGuire had denied essential parts of Butler's testimony, which the committee itself reported it had proved by documents, bank records, and letters. Did the Department intend to file a criminal prosecution against MacGuire for perjury or involvement in the plot? "I was told," Spivak reported, "it had no plans to prosecute."

. . .

Powerful influence had obviously been brought to bear to cut short the hearings, stop subpoenas from being issued to all the important figures involved, and end the life of the committee.

. . .

Spivak went to see Dickstein and asked him why Colonel Grayson M.-P. Murphy had not been called upon to testify. "Your committee knew," Spivak reminded him, "that Murphy's men are in the Anti-Semitic espionage organization, Order of '76."

. . .

Spivak decided to inform as general Butler, who, he was sure, did not realize it, that portions of his and French's testimony had been omitted in the official report issued by the McCormack-Dickstein committee.

. . .

During their talk Butler revealed that he was intensely preoccupied with the corporate exploitation of the military for profit. Anxious to arouse Americans to this spoliation, he now believed it might be done by a more sophisticated book of memoirs ... Spivak said regretfully that he felt compelled to continue investigating and exposing a more urgent and dangerous situation--Nazi activities in the United States. Butler agreed at once that this activity was more important and offered to help by opening any doors that he could for Spivak. During their discussion Spivak learned "the things about big business and politics, sometimes in earthy, four-letter words, the like of which I had never heard." Butler spilled over with anger at the hypocrisy that had marked American interference in the internal affairs of other governments, behind a smokescreen of pious expressions of high sounding purpose.

Butler was shocked when Spivak showed him copies of the portions of his and French's testimony that had been deleted from the official report of the hearings. His scowl deepened as Spivak revealed that Belgrano had been dismissed without being asked a single question about what had happened at the "gold standard resolution" Legion convention in Chicago.

According to Spivak, upon learning that the committee had reported to Congress that they had verified the authenticity of the plot, yet no action had been taken about MacGuire's wholesale denials under oath, Butler lost control of this volatile temper.

" I'll be goddamned!" he roared. "You can be sure I'm going to say something about this!"

. . .

In his broadcast over W C A U on February 17th, 1935, Butler revealed that some of the "most important" portions of his testimony had been suppressed in the McCormack-Dickstein report to Congress. The committee, he growled, had "stopped dead in its tracks when it got near the top." He added angrily:

Like most committees, it has slaughtered the little and allowed the Big to escape. The big shots weren't even called to testify. Why wasn't Colonel Grayson M.-P. Murphy, N.Y. broker ... called? Why wasn't Louis Howe, secretary to the President of the United States, called? ... Why wasn't Al Smith called? And why wasn't General Douglas MacArthur, Chief of Staff of the United States Army, called? And why wasn't Hanford MacNider, American Legion commander, called? They were all mentioned in the testimony. And why was all mention of these names suppressed from the committee report? This was no piker set-up. MacGuire, who was the agent of the Wall Street bankers and brokers who proposed this organization, told me that $3 million was "on the line" and that $300 million—and that's a lot of money even today—was in view to put over this plot to bluff the government.

He kept up a running attack on the conspirators' night after night, revealing facts that have been omitted in the official committee report. In another broadcast he lashed out at the American Legion with no holds barred:

Do you think it could be hard to buy the American Legion for un-American activities? You know, the average veteran thinks the Legion is a patriotic organization to perpetuate the memories of the last war, an organization to promote peace, to take care of the wounded and to keep green the graves of those who gave their lives. But is the American Legion that? No sir, not while it is controlled by bankers. For years the bankers, by buying big club houses for various posts, by financing its beginning, and otherwise, have tried to make a strikebreaking organization of the Legion. The groups--the so-called Royal Family of the Legion--which had picked its officers for years, aren't interested in patriotism, in peace, in wounded veterans, in those who gave their lives ... No, they are interested only in using the veterans, through their officers. Why, even now, the commander of the American Legion is a banker--a banker who must have known what MacGuire's a money was going to be used for. His name was mentioned in the testimony. Why didn't they call Belgrano and ask him why he contributed?

Butler was incredulous when he read that Colonel William E. Easterwood, national Vice Commander of the Legion, while visiting Italy in 1935, had pinned a Legion button on Mussolini, making him an "honorary member," and had invited the dictator to the next Legion convention in Chicago.

Why, Butler wondered, did the Legion membership stand for such an abuse of the organization in their name? Apparently an uproar of sorts did break out, because Mussolini's honorary membership was later canceled as "unconstitutional" on grounds of the Legion had no honorary members.

. . .

John L. Spivak was equally mystified by the lack of any action taken by the Department against the conspirators. When I [Archer] asked him about it, he replied, " I have no knowledge why the Attorney-General did not pursue this matter except that most likely it was deemed politically inadvisable." He thought it possible that the decision might actually have been made in the White House on a basis of sheer pragmatism. As he speculated in his book A Man In His Time:

What would be the public gain from delving deeper into a plot which was already exposed and whose principals could be kept under surveillance? Roosevelt had enough headaches in those troubled days without having to make a face-to-face confrontation with the men of great wealth and power. Was it avoidance of such a confrontation? [Secondly,] was it a desire by the head of the Democratic Party to avoid going into matters which could split the party down the middle, what with [J. P. Morgan and Company's] Davis and [ex-Democratic candidate for President] Smith, two former party heads, among those named by Butler? [editor comment: presently in my opinion, both the so-called Democratic and the so-called Republican Parties in the United States have made themselves traitors in a similar way by passing unread the entirely unconstitutional "Patriot Act" immediately after the anthrax attacks in October 2001, which have been traced to domestic U.S. military sources in their origin and traced to incredible profits for the Carlyle Corp., a large Bush family endeavor which through one of its corporations had a monopoly on the only anthrax medicine available authorized by the FDA. Do I think President George W. Bush was responsible for the anthrax attacks? Yes I do. Why? Well, a second point would be that Bush and his entire cabinet were taking anthrax medication a month before anthrax even appeared. They started taking this medication on September 10, 2001, even before the September 11th attack. They were prepared for the anthrax attacks, prepared for ONLY anthrax specific attacks, and were the only people capable of profiting from specifically anthrax attacks both financially as well as politically. No one else in the entire country was prepared—except Bush. How did they know that a month ahead of time the future bio-terror attack would be specifically anthrax, unless of course they were responsible for the attacks?]

[Archer interviewed an aged though still spry and healthy 79 year-old McCormack from the McCormack-Dickstein Committee. It was in 1971. Archer wrote:] finally I asked him, "Then in your opinion America could definitely have become a fascist power had not been for a general Butler's patriotism in exploding the plot?"

"It certainly could have," McCormack acknowledged ...

. . .

[Back to the mid 1930s and Butler:]

On October 5th, when Mussolini invaded Ethiopia, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee invoked an arms embargo against both countries under the Neutrality Act. Although Butler sympathized with Ethiopia, he approved of Congress's determination to keep clear of involvement in any foreign war.

On Armistice Day he spoke to a crowd of 10,000 in Philadelphia at a peace rally held by the Armistice Day Celebration Committee and the Women's International League for peace and freedom. Deglamorizing the first war he had fought in, the [Teddy Roosevelt] Spanish-American War, he shouted, "That war was caused by the newspaper propaganda of William Randolph Hearst, and he's been trying to get us into another war ever since. Don't let the man you send to Washington get you into another war ... That is surely coming along."

. . .

He told a YMCA audience that Mussolini was invading Ethiopia to get oil because the nation was bankrupt:

But the only way out for Mussolini is to declare war on somebody. That's the regular way of dealing with such situations. If this country ever gets busted, you can look for war in about 6 months. [editors comment: That is pretty much what happened as the stock market sank in Summer 2001; within Butler's predicted "six months", the U.S. was invading and starting a foreign war (in Afghanistan) with incredible amounts of money being pored at the stock market through government contracts to military armaments corporations.] Before he started it, Mussolini called a conference with England and France ... and he thought he had everybody's permission to go ahead. Diplomacy is reeking with rotten politics. None of the representatives of any of the nations is sincere. I wouldn't trust any of them anywhere.

. . .

Seeing the war clouds gathering over Europe, he grew worried that Americans would once again be fed slogans and half truths to distort their judgment, and fall victims to professional propagandists for those who would urge war in support of one favored country or another. He sensed the President's growing internationalism and joined other liberal pacifists in demanding that Roosevelt stick to implementing the New Deal and steer clear of any foreign adventures. [Editor comment: However, through this period, FDR was scheming with Churchill in attempts to do just that: bait the Germans to attack the United States and injure Americans in some manner. There were perhaps a dozen separate attempts at doing this in order to provide a false pretext for the U.S. to declare war on Germany. As the books Day of Deceit and others show, FDR and the Navy allowed the Japanese to attack Pearl Harbor through an intentional stand down of the U.S. military's response and warning systems. This Pearl Harbor attack that the U.S. allowed and desired Japan to commit, killed thousands of Americans—simply for FDR's political goals that had been delayed so far: declaring war on Germany, Japan's ally. This is a similar context to Bush personally allowing the 9-11 attacks to happen by sitting still on September 11, 2001 in that Florida classroom and doing nothing though he was aware of two hits already upon the World Trade Center. After 9-11, Bush (like FDR) used domestic attacks due to a military stand down of typical response as a pretext to attack Afghanistan as well as Iraq—even though nothing in the way of evidence was ever provided that Al-Queda, Afghanistan, or Iraq had anything to do with the 9-11 attacks. Déjà vu: 1941 Pearl Harbor like 2001's Sept 11 attacks—both U.S. government contrived events that planned and desired the murders of thousands of Americans simply for falsely justifying militaristic overseas political goals?]

Butler addressed the Third U.S. Congress Against War and Fascism in Cleveland on January 3, 1936, he urged strict neutrality:

Every indication points to a Second World War .... The nations of Europe and Asia are spending billions of dollars each year in military preparations .... These nations are bound to go to war because the men in charge of the governments of some of them have worked to their people into a fanatical frame of mind .... Now that their people are getting out of control, the so-called leaders must attack some foreign objective if they are to remain in control. With many of them is a question of a foreign war or being overthrown. None of these dictators is willing to cut his own throat, hence this war .... If we pass a single, a tiny thread of help to these leaders gone insane, the same leaders will pull a bigger line after the little one until the rope is so big they can drag us in with it .... When you take sides, you must eventually wind up by taking part .... See that our Congress writes into law a command that no American Soldier, Sailor or Marine be used for any purpose except to protect the coast line of the United States, and protect his home--and I mean his home--not an oil well in Iraq, a British investment in China, a sugar plantation in Cuba, a silver mine in Mexico, a glass factory in Japan, and American owned share of stock in a European factory—in short not an American investment anywhere except at home! ... Let Congress say to all foreign investors: "Come on home or let your money stay out of the country--we will not defend it."

. . .

While Butler had become an isolationist out of disillusionment with the motives of those who engineered armed U.S. intervention in other countries, he hated fascism as fervently as he hated war. He warned angrily that the fascist fifth column in America was so active one in every 500 Americans had become "at heart a traitor to democracy."

His long fought crusades ended in triumph in January, 1936, when Congress, under heavy pressure from the nation's veterans aroused by Butler, Senators Patman and Thomas, and the VFW bonus rallies, finally passed the Patman Bonus Bill over Roosevelt's veto.

Many veterans groups now urged him to throw his hat into the presidential race of 1936. A realist, he declined, explaining, "I am too ignorant to be the President of the United States and have not a definite plan for curing our present ills. I am doing the best I can to educate myself, but I feel no man should invite others to follow him unless he has definite objectives, and has the course marked out, day by day. I, of course, learned the above from my military life."

. . .

A thoroughgoing extrovert, he was not ostensibly an egotist; it simply came naturally to him as a Marine general to be in command of the situation. His children could not recall any gathering at which their father did not hold forth, less because he wanted or needed to, then because he was urged on by a barrage of interested questions. People were fascinated by his views and experiences.

He was not, however, among the honored guests when the American Liberty League, in January 1936 organized a banquet for 2000 of its members at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington. The principal speaker was Al Smith.

. . .

The American Liberty League banquet marked the opening of their hate campaign of propaganda to defeat the reelection of Roosevelt in 1936. The Scripps-Howard Press and its United Press wire service, an exception to the rabidly anti-Roosevelt newspaper chains, rushed to the President's defense.

Following through on Butler's exposé, their papers carried a story headlined: "Liberty League Controlled by Owners of $37 Billion". Directors of the League were identified as also being directors of U.S. Steel, General Motors, Standard Oil, Chase National Bank, Goodyear Tire, and Mutual Life Insurance Company. Liberal senators joined the attack.

On January 23rd Senator Shwellenbach denounced "J. Pierpont Morgan and John J. Raskob and Pierre du Pont and all the rest of these rascals and crooks who control the American Liberty League." Senator Robert M. La Follette, Jr., pointed out that the league's biggest contributors were the DuPonts, A. P. Sloan [CEO, Ford Motor Co., implanted as CEO after the du Pont family buys a huge share of Ford; Sloan eventually leaves Ford Motor Co. just as duPont family pulls out its investments, similar as when he was put in when they invested], the Pews [of Pew Charitable Trust], E. T. Weir, Sewell Avery, and John J. Raskob, and declared, "It is not an organization that can be expected to defend the liberty of the masses of the American people. It speaks for the vested interests."

The attacks on the League, plus Roosevelt's reelection in 1936 over its desperate and expensive opposition, destroyed the organization as an effective force of reaction in America. It was disbanded soon afterward with a brief announcement to the press that the purposes for which the league had been formed had been served, and that it was therefore no longer necessary. But affiliates financed by the League, like the Sentinels of the Republic, the Crusaders, and other pro fascist and far-right organizations, continued their agitation.

. . .

In September Butler endorsed the candidacy of Representative Vito Marcantonio, of the left-wing American Labor Party, for his anti-war, anti-fascist stand. Butler's detractors assailed this endorsement as "proof" that he was some kind of Red, ignoring the fact that 2 weeks earlier Roosevelt had accepted the invitation of the American Labor Party to become its candidate as well as [dually] the candidate of the Democratic Party.

The growing isolationist movement in America now resulted in more prominence being given to Butler's anti-war speeches in the press. On September 17th when he delivered a slashing attack on war makers before the VFW in Denver, it was carried in part on the wires of the Associated Press:

War Is Called "Hell" and "Business Racket":
General Butler and Senator Bone Warn Veterans
of Foreign Wars Of The Future

Men who fought America's foreign wars cheered violently today as a major general and a senator called warfare "a business racket." Major-General Smedley D. Butler, retired used blunt language as he told the Veterans of Foreign Wars that "war is hell." ... "But what in the hell are we going to do about it? I've got something for you to do about it. I'm going to tell you in simple language so all of you can understand. Let the world know that hereafter no American soldier is going to leave the shores of this country! .... Soldiers never leave the country except to protect the moneyed interests."

. . .

The DuPonts supplied more grist for Butler's anti-war mill in September, when the Senate Munitions Investigating Committee revealed that the munitions industry, led by the DuPonts, had sabotaged a League of Nations disarmament conference held at Geneva. "After the whole conference was over and munitions people of the world had made the treaty a satisfactory one to themselves," reported Chairman Gerald Nye, "we find that Colonel Simons [of the DuPonts] is reporting that even the State Department realized, in effect, who controlled the Nation.

On October 19th Butler used his popularity with the dry [anti-alcohol] forces, who remembered him affectionately from the Volstead Act days in Philadelphia, to appeal to the Women's Christian Temperance Union to join the peace movement. Six days later the mood of the nation grew more apprehensive, however, as Hitler and Mussolini signed the Rome-Berlin axis pact and the following month were joined by Japan, which signed an anti-Comintern pact with Germany.

Roosevelt's landslide election [in 1936] strengthened his hand against the isolationists, and there are signs that the White House intended to take a tougher stand against the Axis powers. Butler grew increasingly worried that the President might be starting the nation down the road to war.

Speaking at an Armistice Day dinner for veterans, Butler announced firmly that he, with a record of 33 years of military service, would never again shoulder arms except in defense of America's own shores.

Attacking congressional attempts to put loopholes in the Neutrality Act, Butler warned in a subsequent speech that once the United States was lured into shipping supplies to a belligerent, Americans would soon hear the old cry--"the American flag insulted, American property destroyed ... same old thing over again, just as it was in the World War." America, he said, best served itself and the world by staying at peace:

Help them to bind up the wounds when the distressed world has fought itself to exhaustion and has overthrown its false and selfish leaders. I am firmly convinced that every government which hurls its loyal but dumb masses into this coming war be overthrown, win or lose. I am also firmly convinced that another universal war will make man into a savage, ready to take by force what he wants, law or no law.

His tone grew acrid and resentful when Roosevelt won congressional consent to amending the Neutrality Act in May 1937, authorizing the sale to belligerents of some commodities on a cash-and-carry basis. Since a national poll showed that 73 percent of Americans favored some kind of popular referendum before the United States could declare war, Butler felt President was ignoring the will of the people and seeking to tie their fate to that of England and France.

On July 12th he warned a thousand veterans at Paterson, New Jersey, that unless the nation's veterans banded together to demand peace, America would be at war again in a short time. He urged them to demand that the U.S. armed forces be kept within their own borders and that the use of the American flag restricted to government-owned ships.

Speaking to a Writers' Union meeting Philadelphia, he described how the United States might be dragged into the next European war. A European ship would stop a U.S. ship carrying munitions to a potential enemy. The American captain would radio William Randolph Hearst that the flag had been insulted. Orators would begin demanding that Americans avenge the insult. Ministers would discover that they were "transmitters from God" and encourage a holy crusade. Arms manufacturers would bring pressure to bear on Washington. And we would go to war.

A July speech he made to the Institute of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville was broadcast:

Wars do not occur. They are made by men .... There will never be a congressional investigation into the steps taken or the methods adopted which saves us from war .... Lying propaganda is almost certainly necessary to bring nations to the pitch where men kill and women give their men and boys to be killed .... The object of war it is to get something for nothing .... When we have announced what we intend to defend, let us put our national flag over it and forbid the flying of our flag over anything else; then we will avoid insults to our flag, the most popular cause for our wars .... We Americans who love and protect our flag should certainly have a voice and where it is flown.

With Japanese troops sweeping through China and seizing the coastal cities, Butler addressed the VFW convention in September urging that all American forces be withdrawn from China. Three months later Japanese airmen sank the U.S. gunboat Panay in Chinese waters. A poll showed that 53 percent of Americans agreed with Butler's demand for withdrawal of all United States forces. But instead Washington demanded indemnity from Tokyo.

Butler was convinced that a continued American presence in Asia could only lead to eventual war with an aggressive Japan bent on becoming the dominant power in the Orient. He sought confirmation of his belief that war was a business racket when Washington continued to permit American corporations to sell scrap iron and oil to Tokyo for its war machine [even after the Japanese attacked the U.S. gunboat Panay]. He also knew that there were over $2 billion in American investments in Germany, which was being goaded by British diplomacy into attacking the Soviet Union.

If these facts seem to him more immediately menacing than the steadily escalating aggression of the Axis powers, he was not alone among liberal and left-wing Americans in this myopia. In January 1938 John Chamberlain, Alfred M. Bingham, Dwight MacDonald, Bertrand Wolfe, and Sidney Hook were among those who opposed any strong action against Japan, or any of the other Axis powers, arguing "we believe that the first result of another War To Make The World Safe For Democracy will be the establishment of virtual fascism in this country."

By now the country was almost evenly divided between isolationists and those who advocated anti fascist alliances. In late January Roosevelt passed Congress for appropriations to build up the Army and the Navy for "national defense."

Interviewed on February 28th, 1938, on a national radio program, Butler had strong doubts about FDR's plans:

Now was the time to keep our heads better than we ever kept them before .... We all ought to agree on a definition of the word "national." If it means defense by our army and navy of every dollar and American person anywhere they may happen to be on the surface of the earth, then, just as sure as I'm standing here, we'll be fighting a foreign war.

He was asked how long he estimated it would take to train them and fight. "Well," he replied, "if you want to send him 3,000 miles away to fight, at least 6 months' training will be needed. If he was defending his home, it would take about an hour."

On April 9th Butler was called to testify before the Senate Committee on naval affairs on a billion dollar naval construction bill. Urging defeat of the bill, he called unnecessary for the real defense of the United States. In the event of war, he told the committee, he favored abandoning Alaska, the Panama Canal, the Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico. The canal, he asserted could be destroyed by "a handful of bombs." He also insisted that all mercantile ships operated for profit should fly commercial flags, not the American flag.

. . .

He had used up 15 years of his life, he growled, "going about the world guarding Standard Oil tins" [Standard Oil is 'now' Esso/Exxon, UNOCAL, Chevron—among others] and had participated in 12 expeditions outside the United States which he considered missions largely in the interest of Wall Street. "The whole thing is a racket," he added, "and the American people are going to catch up with it."

. . .

In November Congress passed a new [oxymoronic] Neutrality Act that legalized the sale of munitions to belligerent nations on a cash-and-carry Basis. The news filled Butler with dismay.

. . .

From the comfortable vantage of hindsight, it is easy to fault Smedley Butler as having been woefully shortsighted in his stubborn view that the best interests of Americans were served by persisting in a policy of neutrality. But 30 years in uniform, seeing active service in every war and campaign since the Spanish-American War, had convinced him that war was nothing but a cruel and bloody swindle of the people.

His suspicions were not eased by observing industrialists and bankers entering trade cartels with America's potential enemies, Germany, Italy, and Japan, while U.S. arms manufacturers made huge profits selling munitions to both sides and pressed Congress to spend new billions on "defense" to keep up with the "arms race" they themselves had promoted.

. . .

Worn out by his strenuous speaking tours, discouraged as he saw the United States step by step into another bloodbath, he fell ill with exhaustion. .... During his 4 weeks in hospital ... he lost weight rapidly and guessed that his ailment was more serious than the doctors were letting him know.

On June 10th Italy declared war on Britain and France. Roosevelt promptly called for "full speed ahead" in the promotion of national defense and for the extension of material aid to "opponents of force." The next day Congress voted another $3.2 billion in military appropriations.

On June 14th Butler's gloom plunged to new depths when Germany invaded France unopposed. Four days later admiral Howard R. Stark, Chief of Naval Operations, asked Congress for a two-ocean navy in a $4 billion expansion program.

. . .

On June 21st, 1940, hours before France was scheduled to surrender officially to Adolf Hitler, Smedley Darlington Butler died in hospital of an abdominal ailment suspected to cancer.

. . .

The general who could have all the wealth and power he wanted as dictator of the United States died leaving an estate that totaled $2,000.

. . .

It would seem time that school textbooks in America were revised to acknowledge our debt to the almost forgotten hero who thwarted the conspiracy to end democratic government in America.

If we remember Major-General Smedley Darlington Butler for nothing else, we owe him an eternal debt of gratitude for spurning the chance to become dictator of the United States--and for making damned sure no one else did either.

Another point to remember is the route that Butler exposed, the route which these fascist groups were taking to bring about fascism 'legally' in the United States: [1] they planned to use presidential supremacism arguments, similar to what Bush is using, [2] they used a novel Cabinet level post (exactly like Homeland Security) as a "supersecretary of national affairs" that is over so many hundreds of departments that it becomes a form of bureaucratic instead of democratic elected power over all citizens; [3] they had planned to have a national ID card that citizens were forced to carry and to show to police at all times (something else that Bush has attempted to pressure as well; they are still working on it with monitoring everything from your library books to your private daily purchases already); [4] they were dreaming of concentration camps and slave labor in prisons (FEMA presently has taken bids for building several 'emergency' concentration camps in the continental United States; plus, there is already one huge 1 million acre concentration camp in Alaska, already ready to be America's "Siberia" for political dissidents and any others; [5] they wanted to protect and secure Wall Street private jurisdiction over governmental finances (like Bush's huge tax rebates that only the very wealthy and the corporations have benefited from this and from huge military subsidies in the past three years); [6] they planed to seize power quickly in a military coup to destroy the U.S. Constitution (In my opinion, given that the Pentagon allowed its own attack and allowed the WTC attacks due to military stand down, and the fact that the Patriot Act was passed under threat of anthrax without even being read or published: these activities of September through October 2001 were the Bush Administration's presidentialist military coup to pressure huge war financing and to pressure the destruction of the U.S. Constitution to usher in a police state which had already been written up by groups like the CSIS; [7] The MacGuire idea was getting up a 'vote block' organization that could deliver votes wherever required (similarly, under Bush-connected corporations, like Diebold Voting Machines, Bev Harris's exposure of the corrupt tabulation machines of Diebold shows that votes are at present very deliverable digitally and the actual vote is very open to fraud and tampering); it seems to me that Bush has #1, #2, #4, #5, #6, #7 already. And they have a large portion of #3 in place already.

I leave you with a quote from the Veterans of Foreign Wars, above:

On January 7th The Miami, Okla., post of VFW passed a resolution: "Major-General Smedley D. Butler should be commended for his high type of patriotism and exposing the alleged plot to establish a dictatorship in the United States, and ... Franklin D. Roosevelt, President, and citizens of the United States, should express their appreciation of this exposure."

A movement began within the VFW to have each post reaffirm its loyalty to the president and the Constitution. " this, in my opinion, would serve notice upon all plotters against our government," wrote Henry S. Drezner, VFW official of the Brooklyn post, " that the veterans will not stand idly by while an attempt should be made to destroy our form of government."

War Is a Racket: The Anti-War Classic by America's Most Decorated General, Two Other Anti-Interventionist Tracts, and Photographs from the Horror of It
by Smedley D. Butler
link to www.amazon.com[*free version of bit of the book here: link to www.jameslandrith.com ]